Technological innovation and increased food safety awareness will drive the edible ink market to continue to grow.

The edible inkjet ink market is growing at a steady rate with various acquisitions and collaborations among industry players. In January 2022, Union Chemicar expanded its production facilities for inkjet, thermal inkjet and edible inks, as well as stationery supplies such as correction tape and adhesive tape, from Japan to various international locations. The expansion is aimed at strengthening global presence. In June 2021, Sun Chemical launched a strategic cooperation with VPK France, a subsidiary of the VPK Group, to jointly develop sustainable ink products. The partnership aims to convert the printing business of the French website to Sun Visto AquaGreen renewable ink. In June 2021, the company also acquired BASF’s global pigments business to expand its cosmetics, coatings, inks, plastics, and professional applications and better serve customers around the world. , these companies are increasing market share and maintaining their leading position through acquisitions and cooperation.

        Technological innovations in edible inks are also driving market growth

Rheology is an important factor in ink formulation. It also provides a pre-assessment of the ink’s printing capabilities, thereby acting as a bridge between practical printing and edible inks. The rheological properties of edible inks include viscosity, shear thinning properties, and pseudoplastic properties. These properties are significantly related to the properties of the ink, such as molecular weight, concentration, temperature, intermolecular and intramolecular interactions, and pH, which play an active role in the smoothness of the printing process. Other factors such as modulus can help account for the viscoelastic properties of edible inks, such as liquid and solid properties, and indicate the ink’s structural strength against ink and chemical reaction processes. This helps determine the ink structure,

In addition, compliance, yield stress, and thixotropy help to understand transition state transitions of edible inks, orientation of bonds, and restoration of structure to increase structural maintenance and shape retention after printing. Therefore, understanding the rheology of edible inks can provide insights into the structural characteristics of edible inks, thereby improving the structural fidelity and printing capabilities of food printing. As consumers grow, it is important to increase practical mass food printing applications with high consumer acceptance. Rheology helps increase the speed of development as it allows researchers to pre-evaluate the printability of edible inks and develop them for maximum printing effect and use in industry applications.

​​ ​The risk of migration and contamination from non-food grade inks drives the application growth of edible inks

When harmful non-food grade inks are used on food packaging instead of edible inkjet inks, the food may become contaminated due to ink migration. This is an important issue, especially in food products such as tablets, capsules and baby food. Ink migration occurs when ink components in packaging materials seep into food. In addition to contaminating food, ink migration can alter the taste and smell of food, causing harmful effects on customer health and damaging a company’s reputation. According to the World Health Organization, contaminated food causes about 600 million illnesses and 420,000 deaths worldwide every year, costing 33 million years of healthy life, all of which have promoted the growth of edible ink applications.

The major players in the global edible ink market include Sun Chemical Corporation (US), Toyochem Co., Ltd. (Japan), Linx Printing Technologies (UK), Union Chemicar Co., ltd. (Japan), The Cake Decorating Co. (UK), MagicFrost (US), Icing Images (US), Icinginks (US), Edible Supply (US) and Edible Image Supplies (Australia), etc.